Curious Souls

Photo courtesy of Don Hankin Our credit card number has been stolen. Fortunately, we caught it early and Wells Fargo is being cool about it. But really, how annoying.

Asher might be mad at us. Now that we've introduced him to cold weather and snow, he keeps looking at us like "Really? This was here this whole time and you made me live in the hot desert instead??" Video can also be viewed here .

After two long days of driving, we finally arrived at Ellen's parents home at 11:44 pm Monday night. We are all safe and sound and sleepy. Goodnight world!

And we are off! After a quick visit to the myopractor and a yummy breakfast at Los Taquitos , we picked up Asher and pointed the van (+ trailer) north. Destination: Albuquerque, NM. So it turns out that there's a ginormous storm cloud covering Arizona and New Mexico right now. The rain in Phoenix turned into snow in Flagstaff and ice in New Mexico. Yikes. There were a few stretches where we were literally skating. We couldn't turn or we would skid and we couldn't brake or we would skid. A tiny bit unnerving, to say the least. But Jon did a fantastic job of driving and we are now (nine hours later), safe and sound in a lovely La Quinta hotel room. Now it's time for sleep. Sweet dreams, everyone!

Photo by Tigr When we got married three years ago, Jonathan and I were surprised to find that we could actually feel the positive, loving energy directed at us by our friends and family. It was a six hour high that we never expected to have again. We are happy to say that we were wrong. As we are preparing to leave for this adventure, we are blessed to be feeling that way once again. But this time, it isn't just lasting six hours. It is lasting weeks. And it is awesome. The outpouring of kindness we have received has humbled us. Do you want to know what you have collectively given us? You have given us words of support and encouragement, gifts and money, help with packing, places to stay after we're out of our house but before we are on the road, valuable advice and resources, invitations for us to stay with you (or your family members or friends) on our trip, medical advice and valuable travel prescriptions, storage offers (of our things and our animal), offers to sell stuff f

I'm a sentimental guy.  I like to collect things that remind me of the good times in my life.  But, sometimes, I also collect "things" for no particular reason. Our future lifestyle necessitates that I let go of some of those things.  Thanks to Ellen's parents allowing us some room for storage at their house, I don't need to purge all those "things" from my life, but I do need to get rid of most of them.  This has been a difficult task for a die-hard, sentimental pack rat. For the sake of illustration, I give you a few examples.  First, a non-sentimental example.  I had several records that I recently gave to a friend.  This wasn't too difficult since I know that, with some combination of E-Bay and craigslist, I could probably find most of them again. I present to you my tiny little record collection: More difficult was the shedding of my T-Shirt Collection.  I capitalize the subject in that sentence because those of you who know me well

DISCLAIMER: THIS POST TALKS ABOUT POO. I learned a very fascinating thing in the BNI OR yesterday. There is a medical poo scale. A Poo Scale. That describes poo. My inner teenage boy self was delighted. Bristol Poo Scale (censored for your protection) Needless to say, I'm really going to miss the people at BNI.

This may come as a shock to everyone, but medical device reps are not universally loved at hospitals. Some people see us as immoral, blood-sucking parasites that they are forced to deal with on a daily basis. I encountered one of these pleasant people today and in passing, mentioned that I would not likely be back at his hospital because I was leaving Medtronic to travel for a year. He responded with a snarl and the words "Must Be Nice". (Please add the appropriate amount of sarcasm to this statement) Sadly, I know exactly what his passive-aggressive comment meant: In addition to being a blood sucking parasite, I am a blood sucking parasite who is filthy rich. Because only the wealthy get to do whatever they want in life, right? Now I'm not going to deny my privilege. I was born white and able-bodied in America to a middle class family who loved me and who encouraged my intellectual and social growth. I am one of the most privileged people on the planet. Howeve